Kim sent this to me:

i did blood work at walter reed for my first rotation of co-op... sometimes we would centrifuge the samples down, which separates the red blood cells from the plasma.  you can absolutely tell if someone has had so much as one cigarette a day, by the turbidity of their blood plasma.  a person who doesn’t smoke has completely translucent blood plasma, but it’s cloudy for smokers.

Sick.  Sick!  Ugh.

The Europeans have little interest in such unimportant points as Constitutional limits on Federal power. They tried to include clauses in a treaty regarding chemical weapons which would have violated the Fourth Amendment, and the ICC treaty violates Article III and amendments 4, 5, 6, 8, 14 and probably also Article I and amendments 9 and 10, and likely other Constitutional provisions as well. There was a proposal for a treaty regarding the Internet which would have infringed the First Amendment. This keeps happening, and when US negotiators point out that such treaties cannot be ratified, and would be nullified by the courts even if they were ratified, the Europeans fall back on denunciations of the Americans as not being team players, not being multilateral. It seems as if they don’t really understand just how serious we are about the Constitution, or that they do understand but think it’s an atavism, something we can and should outgrow, and that the US government should demonstrate its political maturity by ignoring the Constitution.

Meanwhile, diplomacy continues to create new meanings for words and phrases. The French ambassador says that the US and France must "work together" ... Work together means that the US should forget everything that France has said and done over the last two years, forget that it is the publicly avowed policy of the French political class to try to limit American power and influence, and to once again embrace the French as friends and allies.

Work together means that the French have no real power to force us to do anything, and thus can only manipulate us if we’re naive and trusting. As long as we’re suspicious, they no longer have any ability to shaft us, and they’d like us to drop our defenses so they can shaft us again.

And sending a powerful political message of empowerment to the Iraqi people means making sure that democracy fails there so that America gets no benefit from invading, even indirectly. ...

Somehow they still think that it’s all temporary, something we’ll outgrow. All the calls for "healing", for "new cooperation", for "working together", really mean only this: "Have you come to realize just how unwise and wrong-headed you’ve been? Are you ready to start listening to us yet?"

"Healing" means America stops doing things the Europeans don’t like. "New cooperation" means that America cooperates with Europe, not the other way around. "Working together" means American surrender. ...

The majority of Americans don’t respect Europe’s opinions or take their advice seriously. ... They never really did, but for many Americans the current crisis has changed apathy regarding European opinions into active contempt. (And that’s why they’re voting with their dollars.)

Too many of Europe’s leaders still live in a retro-fantasy that Europe can somehow once again dominate the world, as it did in the golden years of the 16th through 19th centuries. So they agree to grandiose plans to make Europe the most competitive economy in the world in just ten years (3 of which have already elapsed), while their economies are going into the toilet and are holding back the rest of the world. They promise to build up militarily but contemplate cuts in defense spending. They praise themselves for their clout, ignoring how little clout they actually have. They strut and bluster and preen, offer unsolicited advice to others, get angry and resentful when their advice is ignored, and take great pleasure and satisfaction from those few cases when they’ve been able to say, "I told you so!"

And when they want to manipulate others diplomatically without having anything to trade in exchange, and the others refuse to talk to them, they whine plaintively, "Why won’t anyone negotiate with us?"

Because negotiations are a two-way process. Because no one engages in diplomacy unless they have something to gain by doing so, or something to lose by not doing so. Because all parties in negotiations are self-interested, and the Europeans have many demands but little to offer in exchange, and therefore those negotiations would be a pointless waste of time for everyone except the Europeans.

Because at the beginning of the 21st Century, Europe no longer matters as much as it once did, and there’s every reason to believe that its importance and influence will continue to decline.

- Fruitful Dialogue

I am constantly amazed by the number of people who misspell definitely as definately.  I used to do it too, until I saw someone who’d written it with an I instead of an A, and I looked it up because I thought they’d spelled it wrong.  But it’s seriously an epidemic; almost everyone I’ve ever seen type that word has typed it with an A.  I wonder where we all got it from.

I’m moving my site to a new webhost (with 3 gigs of space and root access to the linux box that’ll host it (!!)), and as a result, my site may be intermittently available, not available at all, or available in two different versions, over the next week or so.  Such is the nature of DNS.

I’m also almost done writing a guide that shows you how to quickly set up your own webserver on your own computer to host photos (or whatever else you want), using the scripts that I’ve written over the past 2 years to power sites like my mom’s and my test site.  I’m pretty excited about this.  With a broadband internet connection, anyone can run their own website for free on their own system, so I’m hoping to help a few (or maybe a lot of) people do just that.  And since lots of people have digital cameras nowadays, I think it’d be really neat for lots of people to be able to easily share their photos, without having to upload them anywhere.  Plus, come on, my photo scripts are awesome... there’s a slideshow mode, and users can change to a framed mode if they like that better, and visitors can post comments on individual photos, and can post their own photos with their comments if you choose to enable that...

Awesome, awesome, they are the awesomest!  Five Iron Frenzy played in Anderson last night and it was so fricken’ awesome!  It’s the "Winners never quit Tour" with Holland and Bleach.  Holland was kind of disappointing live, though I do like what I have heard of their CD, but Bleach put on a pretty good show.  Well, the fact that we got to go backstage for their preformance might have helped, too.  But, of course, Five Iron put on the best show.  They’re not my favorite band to listen to, but they are my favorite to see live.  Reese, the lead singer, is so goofy.  Just the stuff he does on stage is hilarious.  Also, random stuff just seems to happen with them.  Somebody gave him a comb while he was singer and it started a whole barrage of items being thrown on-stage ranging from shoes to a stuffed turtle to a potato masher.  (Yes, a potato masher)  The really cool thing about Reese is the fact that, unlike other bands, he doesn’t act all high and mighty.  Before and after every concert, he is always out front talking to people.  The funny thing is, most people don’t recognize that it’s him and freak out when he goes on stage when they realize they were just talking to him.  Well, unfortunatly, I will never see Five Iron live again, but hopefully Brave Saint Saturn can suffice me for a while.

I keep wanting to post about how alone and depressed I’ve felt lately, but every day there’s a bunch of interesting and non-sad stuff to post about.  So I guess that’s a good thing.

Today my 465 exam went a little better than I expected, which is good.  I hung out with Jeremy a bunch and we got some CSE428 homework done too.  We also played frisbee with Konst and Kevin, and some of our neighbors -- two of them being 7 or 8 year old girls -- wanted to play.  They were cute little kids.  One of the times when Jeremy threw the frisbee into the woods (which only happened one or two or seventy times), the girls insisted on getting it out themselves.  After a few minutes I walk over to the edge and ask if it’s lost.  They say no.  I get closer and see that it’s stuck in the low branch of a tree.  "Oh, it’s just stuck in the tree," I say.  "The jagerbush tree," says one of the kids.  Jagerbush!

And my mom is the best.  She clips articles out of newpapers and magazines and mails them to me.  I just got an envelope full of articles about things like Bill O’Reilly, linux, and wind power.

Today I also extracted several choice quotes from my friends:

"Kevin, how do you make hamburgers?  ’Cause the way I make hamburgers, it sucks."
- Konstantin

Me: The printer just swallowed my print job.
Me: I told the printer to print, and it says it received the job, but nothing’s printing.
Me: Don’t you care??
Jeremy: Care about what?

Jeremy: ...I just think all OSes should come with Perl.
Me: All real OSes do.
Jeremy: What, Windows is a real OS, just not a real good one.

My away message: exams and stuff
Mark’s IM to me later in the day: and stuff eh... I see what you’re up to there

But the thing is... all of a sudden, all my older siblings are married.  OK, not quite all of a sudden, but all 3 of them within the span of 3 or 4 years, and that seems pretty sudden.  That leaves just me and Nick.  (And Maria, but she’s only 10.)  We’re both far more shy than could be considered healthy.

And my friends are getting engaged left and right.  Nate a year or so ago, John a month or two ago, Johnny a while back, Kris a few days ago, and there’s a couple more (who shall remain nameless) on the "probably soon" list.  And I have two friends named Josh who both got married within the last year.

There are a few highly predictable responses to this.  Some people will say, "You’re young; enjoy being single and independent while you can."  My general response to that: either "grow up," "kiss my butt," or "go discourage someone else."  I’ve been not married for nearly 23 years; I’ve had plenty of that, thankyouverymuch.  And I have never been a typical kid.  I’m not into partying, I’m certainly not into freaking dating, and I’m honestly not interested in "meeting lots of girls" or "having lots of girl friends."  All the supposed "benefits" of being single are things that I’m not interested in at all.

That rant was only tangential, though.  It’s not actually that I want to be married right now.  It’s just that I’m completely alone now, and being around lots of people in various stages of getting married casts my solitude in stark contrast.  More to the point, it just makes me sad.  I know and I believe that everything is in God’s hands, but that does not quell the longing for human companionship at every sunset and on every long drive and every time I’m around everyone else who has someone.

[Achtung: this blog is a place where I vent, and it’s a diary of sorts where I reveal those personal things that I feel like revealing about myself.  Public comments are a huge part of what I cherish about this blog, but they can also work against my ability to control the level personal detail that is manifest here.  In particular, a person who is very close to me, for the sake of argument let’s call this person "mom," such a person is probably too close to me and knows me too well to be able to make a public reply that will be considered kosher by me, on a post like this.  In that case (and also for other readers of my ramblings here), personal replies to highly personal posts like this one are more than welcome via email.  Finally, this post is basically me feeling really alone and needing to express that somehow.  I don’t need to hear that "it will all be ok," and as well-intentioned as one may be in saying that, it’s going to come off as belittling and implying naivety to me.]

Why do I think Davis was recalled yesterday? Because 55 percent of the voters wanted Davis out, and 48% of them wanted Schwarzenegger to be his replacement. That’s why.

I know that sounds prosaic, but I think it’s really the most important message of all. Yesterday we demonstrated that the government of the State of California works for its citizens and is controlled by them, and if the people become sufficiently dissatisfied with what the government does, they’ll replace it. And if they think the entire system is rotten, they’ll choose an outsider to become their new leader. If they’re contemptuous of career politicians or decide that all the "insiders" have become corrupted, they’ll send someone with no experience in government. ...

Yesterday the citizens of the State of California performed a coup without firing a shot, and equally important, the government didn’t resist it. On the contrary, the government ran the election by which that coup was implemented, and counted the votes honestly, and its leader accepted the result. ...

Yesterday’s recall demonstrated that the citizens are more powerful than the governments of this nation, and that in the final reckoning our government serves us, but does not rule us. It is our government; it belongs to us. We do not belong to it. ...

The lesson for the world from yesterday: Do not underestimate the power of the American people.

- Guess who

We have a very charismatic new governor.  I am hoping he knows how to play chess with the radicals in Sacramento.  I am also hoping a lot of what he said prior to the election was just political posturing.  If anyone can effect change, I think it is someone like him.  He really has the people behind him.  It would have been great if McClintock had won.  He is a very powerful and honorable man but I feel like the radicals would have beat him up pretty bad.  Hopefully Arnold keeps them running scared.  I can say that right now, this is not a very family friendly state.

The past 24 hours have been pretty interesting for me.

Last night I was supposed to have a CSE465 exam, but the professor jammed the printer and only got the first page printed.  So we all had just one question from the exam, with the rest to be finished in class on Wednesday.

Then today, I wrote a 4-page paper for my music class, in the 3 hours before it was due.  And it was a darn good paper.  Reminds me of old times (actually, my entire life before 2 years ago), when I did everything in the 3 hours before it was due, and got straight-As on everything.  Now, if only engineering could be that way...

After handing my essay in (which by the way was an analysis of the song "A Slow Descent" by Straylight Run, which is my song of the moment), I went to Wegmans to get some groceries.  As I’m walking down an aisle, some random lady goes to me, "That is a NICE shirt."  (I was wearing my Joshua t-shirt, which has a big dragonfly on the the front.)  I said, "Thanks, it’s for a band called Joshua," and pointed to the word "Joshua" under the dragonfly’s wing.  She goes, "Oh, I just liked the dragonfly."  What a punk!!  Well, if she knew better, she would have said "Oh, I’m going to go buy all their albums then because they are the best band of all time."

THEN, I’m in the checkout.  I have milk, orange juice, two boxes of popcorn, a steak, and some Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream.  The checkout lady was a little loopy.  She puts the steak in its own bag, the milk in its own bag, and the ice cream in its own bag.  Then she puts the orange juice and both boxes of popcorn in the same bag, ties it shut, and puts it in another bag.  I’m still trying to understand what that all means.

On the way home, I’m thinking man, it’s a really nice day.  I should give Nate a call and ask him if he wants to hit a cave.  Sure enough, I get home, and there’s an IM from Nate saying let’s go caving.

We’re driving out to Tytoona, which is about 45 minutes away.  On the way there, on a normal non-highway road, I’m driving 65 in a 55 mph zone, and I get passed BY A TRACTOR TRAILER.  Well excuse me!  And it turned out to be a US Mail truck.  So I kinda didn’t feel so bad.  I mean, who doesn’t like to get their mail on time?

So we arrive at Tytoona.  Tytoona is a water cave.  There’s a river running through it, and the river comes right from a spring.  So the water is crystal clear and a toasty 33 degrees Fahrenheit.  On the way in, I’m jumping from rock to rock, keeping out of the water, and Nate laughs at me.  He plunges right in.  (He had wetsuit-socks, after all.  What a jerk.)

Most of the way in, the water is up to your shins or knees.  After about 15 minutes, we get to a spot where you have to start ducking under the low rock ceiling to pass through.  Let me just tell you what you DON’T want to hear Nate say at this point.  Ideally at this point, Nate will not say "Hmmm, the water’s about a foot higher than it was last time I was in here..."  The water is about waist-level at this point, which is bad enough, but then there’s some small logs across the "path" in front of us.  So we sort of have to bend/crawl over these logs, so our shirts and sides get all wet too.

Fortunately that part was only a few minutes long.  On the other side, the cave opens up again, and the sounds of the water are really eerie.  The way it’s rushing in certain places, and gurgling in other places, and echoing off all the walls and the ceiling, it sounds like there’s a convention-hall full of people just ahead (or behind) and their voices are coming to you all mixed and muffled.

After another 20 minutes or so, Nate got scared, so we turned around.  The way back out was interesting because you’re going against the current now.  It’s not incredibly strong, but you could definitely tell that you were dragging your shins against it instead of with it.  Not that you could actually feel your shins -- they were numb long ago -- but you could feel in your leg muscles that it was more work.

Now here’s the funny part: on the way out, Nate says to me, "Maybe it’s more of a summer thing."  Yeah, I’d say so.  It was a nice day today, but not THAT nice... a nice October day, it was.  Still, it was a fun little adventure.  And hey, there weren’t any snakes (because it’s way too freaking cold for them), so that was good.  Didn’t see any bats, either, like I always do in J4.  And as always, I loved the drive out to the cave and home again.  I can’t get enough of driving around the countryside out here.

Mike’s got a good roundup and debunking of ridiculous peacenik assertions regarding the second gulf war.  He doesn’t have comments on his blog, though, so you can’t reply and say "good one, dude."  Sadness.

One especially important point:

And for the last time, it is impossible to impose democracy on anybody. Liberty is the natural state of things only impeded by the government.

That warrants repeating, because it’s mind-bogglingly irritating to hear someone whine, "Who are we to FORCE DEMOCRACY on everyone!!"  You seriously have to be a brain donor to make that statement.  Democracy is the ability to choose the people who will represent you in your government.  It’s not a disease.  It’s not the plague.  And it’s not capitalism (which most reasonable people agree is a good thing, but many liberals do not).  It’s the ability to vote.  And saying that we shouldn’t "force" it on someone is tantamount to saying we shouldn’t "force" someone to breathe.

From the book of Luke:

And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.

And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.  And he said, Master, say on.

There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.  And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both.  Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?

Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most.  And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.

And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman?  I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.  Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.

Of course, it’s a very serious and even a sad lesson.  But I burst out laughing when I read that last sentence.  It’s just so bizarre to envision such a thing taking place.

It’s also funny how Jesus answered out loud a question that the Pharisee had asked in his head.  I wonder if the Pharisees started to get sick of that, since Jesus did it to them all the time.

Kim sent me a link to a really funny article in the onion.  Normally the onion is pure crap, but this article is pretty hilarious.  One other related and notable exception is Bill Gates Grants Self 18 Dexterity, 20 Charisma, but you won’t fully appreciate that one unless you (or someone you know) is into certain kinds of board/card/video games.

Hey, everyone.  Does anyone remember me mentioning some friends and me doing a T.V. show for the local access channel?  Well, the project is finally underway.  I just need prayers that we don’t lose focus that it’s supposed to be for the big guy upstairs.  Also, that it will actually be put on the air, which I doubt will be much of a problem.  We still have a lot of filming to do and I still need to get the music videos, but showing it won’t be much of a problem.  (I’ve actually seen three hours of another guy watching t.v. and how to make "special" brownies on this channel before)  Well, we’re hoping to have the first episode filmed, but not fully edited before my b-day on Oct. 17th.  I got some editing equipment for my comp.  Though, not top-of-the-line, it’ll do the trick.  It’s a Pinnical Linux adapter to transfer my anolog tapes into digital, plus editing software.  It’s pretty nice.  The show is going to be called the C.O.W. show.  Sorry, can’t tell you what that stands for.  The only people that are going to know are those that are working on the show and those that pay real close attention to the opening.  We have a segment we are going to do called "e-mail of the month".  The address is The_Cow_Show@hotmail.com, so send us any question you want.  Trust me, it can be as stupid as you want.  The dumber and funnier, the more likely it will be put on the show.  Well, thanks and if you have any ideas, let me know.

- Cox and Forkum

The local Hoss’ Steakhouse has one of those slidy-letter signs out front of it, and it currently says:

NEW THICKER LEANER STEAKS

Now there’s the obvious fact that thicker is the opposite of leaner.  But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that by leaner, they mean "less fatty."  That’s also not a good thing, since the flavor is in the fat (that’s why we use butter, after all).  Not that I ever ate at this Hoss’ before, but that sign isn’t exactly convincing me that it would be a good idea.

I made a new, dark theme for the site, for the onset of fall.  And because a while ago, Andy said I needed a dark theme.  The old theme(s) are all still available, as links down on the lefthand side.  But for a couple days this one will be forced, because hey, I can do that sort of thing around here.

Also, if you’re using a browser that knows how to properly render stylesheets (hint: Mozilla does, Internet Explorer doesn’t), you’ll notice that the image borders turn red when you mouseover them.

... We as a people must be nearly unanimous about freedom itself so that we can disagree with one another about almost everything else.

And that’s what seems to be happening in Iraq. The ongoing acceleration in the expression of more and more diverse opinions there shows a growing consensus that public expression of diverse opinions is a good thing.

That’s contagious; it appeals to something deep in human character, something that transcends culture. We humans are designed to think and make decisions, but we have to be taught, and usually we have to be forced, to blindly follow orders. Our fundamental independence can be suppressed but never eliminated. It’s still in there, waiting, in everyone. And now that oppression has lifted, it’s starting to bloom in Iraq. As time goes on, it become more wide spread, in Iraq and elsewhere in the region. And it will accelerate.

And that means we’re beginning to win the war. This was the real reason for conquering Iraq. This is our best strategic weapon against the extremists who attacked us. Their power is in their ideas, their beliefs, and basic to them is a dedication to uniformity and central control, of submission of the masses to the will of the few. We counter that with our idea about individual liberty, and our idea is better. I believe that it’s better ethically and esthetically. Societies based on our idea are more productive in nearly every way. And our idea is more competitive memetically. Our idea is more seductive, more attractive. Against it they have little defense.

Diversity and freedom are anathema to them, and it is our dedication to those things which have made us more powerful than they are. If our idea continues to spread, their ideas will be marginalized and will wither away. And then the war will be over.

We will eliminate our enemies not by killing them in hordes, but by infecting them with ideas which will convert most of them to friends. That process has now begun.

A snippet from SDB’s latest on the war that’s just begun.  Not to mention this one:

France: Transfer Power to Iraq by 2004.

USS Clueless: Stick your demands where the sun doesn’t shine.

We’ll leave Iraq when we, and the Iraqi people, are ready.

From the ABC news article:

France, Germany and Russia who opposed the U.S.-led war on Iraq have been pressing for the U.S.-led coalition to quickly hand over power to a provisional Iraqi government to help stabilize the country...

That is a load of crap.  What will happen is the opposite of stabilization if the US relinquishes control to an unfinished Iraqi government before it’s ready for that.  France (among others) has a vested interest in seeing the US fail in Iraq, and that is made more clear with each new absurd demand they make.

I came across an excerpt from this page (scroll down to Sept. 6th) about ’never take water for granted’ and thought I’d share it.  But then while on that site I clicked to her archive page and found this Aug. 31st piece that made me chuckle.  If you haven’t seen this yet, try it, you’ll see what I mean.  (Plus, I’m having fun trying your instructions on adding links; how am I doing?).

Garrett comes up with the strangest and funniest links.

And speaking of funny, kids’ book keeps cracking me up.  Some people are squirrel-handed.  Some people are being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.  Trisha is a severe hottie.

"I’m not a good girl, but also I am not a bad girl.  I don’t know I am a what girl." -’Jessica’

"A book talk about a nice story where under the telephone." -’Wacky’

"Teacher tests the book, but when he watch it, he finds it is over there." -’James’

"I’ll walk out the native door." -’Frank’

"The little boy as cry.  I think he is want to eat, so I giving him a banana.  He throw to me.  Say: Don’t give me, go out! The little boy unlike, I don’t love him." -’Stella’

"At the way, we laughed and had joy at something about our [class] monitor.  Our monitor is a good man, he has a beautiful face and always help the other people.  We love he, like our brother.  After a hou, we reached at the NenJiang.  People, who are swimming, are very large.  Eevery place was filled with happy air." -’Stone’

"[I] decided to go swimming with my boyfriend.  But he is a feudalistic man.  He told me that is a dangerous thing.  I don’t know what happened in the swimming pool.  He said: ’there must be a lot of bad men, and they will watch my body.  Because I only wear a swimsuit.’ Oh, dear! I’m very angry.  I don’t understand him.  It’s horrorable." -’Angel’

’Annie’ predicts that in her children’s lifetime, one woman can have two husbands, and calls it a good thing!  She also predicts that her mother will change her head shape next week, and women will turn into monarchs in China within her lifetime!

On the Factor the other night, O’Reilly said something interesting: he said that most Americans don’t care about the California recall election, and those that do only care because Arnold Schwarzenegger is in the race.  He said that most of us believe that they’re a bunch of crazies out there, and they’re just getting what they deserve.

Now, I know that *I* was thinking that, but I was sorta surprised to hear him say it.  He’s right though.  When you let the American Communist Lawyers Union (that’s ACLU to most people) run your state, well, you bring it on yourself.

Then on the news, I heard that "thousands of telemarketers stand to be laid off" because of the national do-not-call list.  Good.  I am GLAD these people could lose their "jobs."  What a freaking joke.  Maybe now they’ll learn to make an honest living by doing something useful for the world.  Calling people and harassing them is not a valid way to make a living.  Ugh.  Scum.  I feel sick just thinking about how base that is.

In better news, I bought "Who’s Looking Out For You?" today at Wegmans.  Should be an interesting book.  I’m sure I’ll learn a thing or two from it, and at the very least, I’m sure it’ll be really funny, because that’s just how O’Reilly is.

And and, I did something highly unusual last weekend.  I watched a show.  On TV.  Intentionally.  Now, the only thing I’ve watched on TV during the past 5 or 6 years is The O’Reilly Factor.  But on Sunday, my mom called me to say that O’Reilly was being interviewed on another show, so I watched that... and after that show, a drama called American Dreams was on.  And it was really good.  Probably because it’s set a few decades in the past (1960s, I think?), and it’s not full of slapstick and/or sex-based "comedy" like every modern TV show.  Oh, and it’s set in Philadelphia -- hometown (-ish) represent.  So, I think I’ll be watching this show every Sunday night.

Finally, I put a new song of the...... moment online.  It’s "A Slow Descent" by Straylight Run.  This song has definitely been my new favorite song of the moment for the past few weeks.  So go listen.

Okay, what is going on here!  All of a sudden, I start getting more pop-ups then I can count!  I swear, it’s about five pop-ups per 30 seconds.  I just got one while writing that last sentence!  If I turn my back without disabling my internet, I look back only to have about 30 windows up.  It’s not just that though.  They like to taunt me, too.  The pop-ups I get the most of are the one’s that say, "Stop Pop-ups Now!"  Come on!  Free me from this insanity!

anthony is in
anthony is the greatest
anthony is he popenjoy?
anthony is a linux user
anthony is ’libre’ for marc anthony
anthony is a hero he gave the gift of life
anthony is genomineerd voor sporttalent van het jaar 2002 door de zeeuwse sportraad
anthony is being sued
anthony is recovering
anthony is one fan’s dedication to the works of popular science
anthony is asking for is the fair trial he is entitled to
anthony is back for a visit
anthony is available for private lessons in stage combat
anthony is tax assessor for chester county
anthony is "hammer of heretics
anthony is like no other
anthony is quirky
anthony is 50 years old
anthony is honored to be named one of rochester’s top 100 companies
anthony is always finding himself right in the middle of his co
anthony is my favorite
anthony is a person extremely close to me
anthony is arrested for voting and is indicted in albany
anthony is approximately 5
anthony is approximately 2
anthony is an english spy
anthony is such a talented singer that it’s evident that he’s capable of much more than this
anthony is getting ready to
anthony is a
anthony is ready to break new ground with the release of otra nota
anthony is style
anthony is clearly the perfect irons
anthony is bound to amy’s tricky deal
anthony is presenting a continuing education seminar for physicians
anthony is the only monthly magazine in english published by the friars at the basilica
anthony is the 2
anthony is widely known for his achievements within the voluntary sector
anthony is right
anthony is ritchie valens
anthony is here
anthony is still anthony
anthony is equally effective on the perimeter or slashing to the basket
anthony is an offensive force though i prefer to focus
anthony is only a click away
anthony is uncool by woody paige
anthony is truly the best amateur player in the world
anthony is now in general population
anthony is

I just heard on the news that New York city has a proposed ban on smoking on beaches (among other places).

I hope it goes into effect.  I think it’s only a matter of time until smoking in all public places is banned.  It’s the only logical and just solution to this barbaric problem.

The anti-ban people are trying to frame this as a personal rights issue.  And it is a personal rights issue.  But not the way they’re suggesting.  This is clearly an issue where your freedom to swing your fist ends at my nose.

You have the right to intentionally give yourself cancer, but I have the right to breathe air that isn’t infected with your cancer, and no rational person would suggest that the former is more important than the latter.  Therefore if you are infringing upon my right to breathe cancer-free air, then you are no longer within the bounds of your personal rights.

"...though the U.S. may in fact need help in Iraq, President Bush is wrong to try to deal with the U.N., an organizations whose primary goal is to prop up and legitimize dictatorships at the expense of America."

Amen to that.

And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.  Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.  And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever.  And presently the fig tree withered away.